Shippers of agriculture and recycling metal back the potential merger of Canadian Pacific and Norfolk Southern railways, while UPS, other major logistics players, elected officials, municipalities, trade groups and chambers of commerce oppose such a deal, according to an analysis of more than 100 letters written to U.S. rail regulators.

U.S. ports and backers of other freight projects have another shot at some help from Uncle Sam to help pay for repair, maintenance and expansion projects, after the U.S. government said Tuesday that $500 million will be available in the latest round of a popular federal grant program.

Among U.S. ports pursuing major harbor deepening projects, there were decidedly more losers than winners in President Obama’s 2017 budget request unveiled earlier this month. For some, the $4.1 trillion proposal came with a mix of good and bad news. For others, there was no news at all.

An analysis of federal data by the American Trucking Associations shows the truck-related fatality rate dropped in 2014 for the second straight year, and is 40 percent lower than it was a decade ago, despite increased travel by truckers and motorists on U.S. highways.

This year, the U.S. transportation industry will receive the first funding from some $205 billion allocated for highway and $48 billion allocated for transit projects, and approximately $10.8 billion in grants for freight projects allocated over the next five years, the largest allocation over the longest period of time in nearly a decade.

Congress is set to give U.S. ports and cash-strapped states in need of freight project funding an early Christmas gift via an omnibus appropriations bill expected to be sent to President Obama later this week.

The passage of a U.S. highway bill on Friday not only provide dedicated funding for freight projects but will update a freight strategy and network to go beyond the nation’s highways and look at rail and port connections.